Dominican Sisters of Blauvelt
  Sister Beryl Herdt, OP
www.catholicdominicansisters.org
   Sponsored by the Vocation Ministers of the Northeast Dominican 6 Congregations
The Order of Preachers sharing the Gospel for over 800 years.
Stories of Our Sisters
bring the Charism to Life

Here are Our Stories for March 2008
For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord…Jeremiah 29 Who would have thought that religious life could begin at age 63? How it did was certainly indicative that God’s time is not our time. 
According to my plan, I was entering the Dominican Sisters of Blauvelt on September 8, 1958, but God had other plans and a much different timeline.  Three weeks and four days before entrance, my beloved father had a fatal heart attack. As an only child, I realized my place was with my mother, an independent and capable woman, who was also quite profoundly hearing-impaired and needed to settle my father’s business while dealing with unimaginable grief.
So it was that like the Israelites in Exodus, I spent 40 years, from the time of my first discernment to the time of entrance in September 1997, wandering through the desert of life experiences. Thirty-five of those years were spent as an educator, administrator, college trustee, world traveler, and avid tennis player, all with social contacts, both male and female. I continued to maintain a close relationship with the Dominicans of Blauvelt.
After I retired from my full-time commitment, I did part-time consulting until my mother became very ill with lung and brain cancer and I became full-time caregiver. After she died in 1993, I began to resume some of my activities and in 1995 became a Blauvelt Dominican Associate. I really had no clue that God was calling me again but by Easter of 1996, the new seed had been firmly sown.

I entered the congregation later that year and knew I that finally  I was home. Long have I waited for your coming home to me and living deeply our new life (Hosea Hymn). 


Dominican Sisters of Hope
Sister Sylvia Bielen, OP
I believe that every human experience has a religious dimension and all life is suffused with God’s vision.” I have and still, reflect on these words spoken by St. Catherine of Siena for they were and are a catalyst for my life’s journey as a woman religious and as a Dominican Sister. 

Having reflected on St. Catherine’s words, I prayed for an open mind and a broader vision.  I also prayed to be led to a Religious Congregation that would allow me to be the person who I had grown to be.  My prayer and God’s vision led me to the Dominican Sisters of Our Lady of The Rosary.
Journeying with many special Sisters, I recognized as they too recognized that praising, blessing, and preaching were a part of my life that needed to be nourished and finely tuned.  Accepting their invitation to be a Dominican Sister of Our Lady of The Rosary, I am challenged and supported by our Dominican Pillars; Prayer, Study, Community and Mission and am challenged by the many faces of God’s love who call out to me in ministry; for without their faces God’s presence in me would not be radiated. 

Today, as Sister Kathleen, O.P., I embrace the Dominican motto “To Praise, To Bless and To Preach” in and with the Truth that God instills in me. 

Dominican Sisters of Sparkill
Sister Kathy Logan, OP
Art gets you where nothing else does. God is the creator. God is an artist. The arts can touch where words fall silent. My art surprises me with insights into the Scripture and the Earth. It helps me to preach in ways that we share the message through all of our senses.  My paintings, drawings, sculptures and woodcarvings, are known for their bright colors and feminine shapes, convey symbolic messages of hope, social justice, and Gospel values. Whether in writing or graphics, websites or healing through the expressive arts, God moves me to new places and a passionate and deeper understanding of our life and mission.

This afternoon I will lead a session of Art as Meditation with our Sisters in Carlin Hall. We will laugh and I am sure I will learn something profound from them.  Our God is a God of surprises!


If someone would have told me 35 years ago that today I would be an artist waiting for a book for which I had done the graphics, cover and layout and was a past president of the Dominican Institute for the Arts-- I would have laughed incredulously because I thought I would teach my whole life.

I did teach 13 years in Catholic Schools. finished my masters in Scripture and spent 14 years as a Director of Religious Education in Parishes while training lay leadership in Adult Formation Programs.  Today I have a ministry of preaching through the arts. Why I stay is more important than why I entered.  I am a preacher, a Dominican to the core.  My art integrates my prayer, study, common life in mission.
Dominican Sisters of Caldwell

Sister Pat Stringer, OP
A happy family, good friends, creative job…all these brought happiness to my life until I was nineteen.  Then, gradually, I began to wonder, to ponder.  What was life all about?  A variety of activities and pleasures no longer offered me any real, deep pleasure.  I guess it was God’s way of inviting me to MORE:  THE SURPRISE MORE God was offering ME.  But, where was I to turn to grasp this MORE???

God works in strange and subtle, simple ways.  It was simply a word: “Dominican”, and a small picture of St. Rose that led me to inquire, and, within the year, enter the Dominican Sisters.
Dominican Sisters of Amityville
Sister Barbara Schwarz, OP
Sixty-two years have now passed and I can truly say, the MORE has been found and lived.  Giving one’s life totally to God to be used for the furthering of God’s plan for me has been the source of my inner peace and happiness.

Teaching has been my ministry all this time, plus, being an artist with calligraphy as my specialty.

God is Love, and being a sister, God’s love flows through me in special ways and this love can radiate to all around me.

Keep your ears open and heart alert to any “whisperings.”

I first met the Caldwell Dominicans in St. John the Apostle Grammar School in Clark, NJ where I attended for 9 years. After graduating from Caldwell College, I entered the Caldwell Dominicans.  I spent the first few years teaching in schools in NJ. In the 1970’s I volunteered to minister in Abaco, Bahamas.  There is where I realized that I loved living and working in a cross cultural environment.   Thus this journey of religious life took me to Ecuador and today to the Dominican Republic.

In August 1999 I was on my way to Cruce de Arroyo Hondo to be the administrator of a ¨small¨ grammar school. For me It would be a challenge and privilege to work with the people
who wanted the best for their children. Today the grammar school has 1300 children with a staff of 40 teachers and support people.  Many dreams have become reality for the community of Cruce de Arroyo Hondo; perhaps the most significant is Fe y Alegria Holy Spirit High School. For years the 

Continually we enjoy the creativity of the students, they surprise us with their ability to capture the essence of an idea and present it in the form of dance, drama or poetry.  They have won prizes for their participation in mathematics and sports competitions. One of our students was chosen to represent the district on the national level in a youth model of United Nations. We have become the chess champions of our district and are working on a student newspaper for the Fe y Alegria schools.  The joy of the journey continues to unfold in the land of the Dominican Republic.